Comments on: Walking in Your Shoes as a Web Design Client https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/ A look at how trends in communication technology impact individuals and organizations. Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:09:15 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 By: » Church Web Design Part 2: The Vision for a New Website https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66433 Fri, 24 Aug 2007 16:09:15 +0000 https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/2007/08/21/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66433 […] The exciting prospect of possibly leading the redevelopment of my church’s website put me in an interesting position.  On the one hand, after 11 years of helping churches develop websites I had some very strong ideas about what our church website could be, how it could help people connect, and what functionality it should have.  On the other hand, I had not been given the authority to lead the redevelopment and in fact it had not been decided if the church wanted to redesign the site. […]

]]> By: Paul Steinbrueck https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66424 Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:37:15 +0000 https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/2007/08/21/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66424 Stuart, I can definitely sympathize with you. Getting various groups and leaders within the church to buy in, support, and use the website is one of the greatest challenges to the effectiveness of any church website. I'm sure I'll be blogging a lot of about that. If you have any wisdom on that issue, I hope you'll share it. 🙂

]]> By: Stuart D https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66101 Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:19:45 +0000 https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/2007/08/21/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-66101 Interesting – I look forward to reading this part of the blog if nothing else 🙂

I am currently blogging about just this myself but unlike yourself I am not the boss of a web design company. I also have an uphill battle in that every step of the way I need to drag the Church I attend into the modern world – fortunately my pastor has seen the need for the site to exist.

My blog – well it’s a private thing at present as a cathartic outlet and when I’ve finished it I may publish it but then again …. !

]]> By: Paul Steinbrueck https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-65931 Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:40:21 +0000 https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/2007/08/21/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-65931 Hi Doug, thanks for your comment. You’re probably right that there’s no way that my experience will exactly mirror our other clients’ experiences. However, since every client and every website is unique, there really is no typical experience anyway. I think there will be enough similaries though that readers will get a good feel for what the process is like.

There is also a lot that the leader of a project like this has to do within his church in order to make it work – finding out what functionality the church wants, getting “buy in” from the people who will have to update their sections of the site, training those people, and getting the congregation on board to use the site, just to name a few. If not addressed well, those are things that can cause the downfall of a church website, but those are things our staff doesn’t see or deal with. I think it would be of tremendous value to be able to advise the church’s lead web administrator about those things after going doing them myself.

– Paul

P.S. The “secret shopper” idea would be a cool idea except that the first thing Mark, our president and director of sales, does after someone fills out the consultation request form is call the prospective client. I have a feeling he would have recognized my voice. 😉

]]> By: Doug Andrew https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-65903 Tue, 21 Aug 2007 17:49:40 +0000 https://www.ourchurch.com/blog/2007/08/21/walking-in-your-shoes-as-a-web-design-client/#comment-65903 Paul, it’s probably too late for this, but wouldn’t it have been cool if you had set up your “walking in your shoes experience” as if you were a “secret shopper”? You could have started out with an anonymous email and a generic name for the Church (not giving away the local location) which would have thrown off your staff and they would have treated you like any other client. With the scenario the way it is, one would think that there’s really no way that your experience will exactly mirror ours because like you say, you’re the boss.

However, having said that, the customer service that OCC provides is amazing, so maybe there will be no difference. I’ve always felt treated like an owner/boss ever since I established my site almost ten years ago…you were always responsive and now that you’ve added support staff, they are exactly the same. So thanks to all you guys at the OC.com for providing an affordable way to post what God gives us to say! This is one client that has felt extremely satisfied with your service right from the beginning.

Doug Andrew
withoutspot.com

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